Investigative reporter Paul Sperry said Monday that newly declassified FBI records confirm the bureau opened a criminal probe into then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions during the Russia investigation.
The records detail an investigation codenamed MARCH TOLL. The FBI opened the case on May 10, 2017, one day after President Donald Trump fired then-Director James Comey. Sperry wrote on X that the file confirms a 2019 story by RealClearInvestigations reporting that former Deputy Director Andrew McCabe had targeted Trump’s first attorney general.
“Just-declassified FBI document confirms 2019 story by RCI that McCabe also opened an investigation targeting Trump’s first AG, Jeff Sessions, over #RussiagateHoax, and actually used a leftwing Huffington Post article as foundation to justify the probe,” Sperry posted.
The White House Government Transparency Task Force released the records Monday. Just the News founder John Solomon briefed the public on their contents. The probe was predicated on a March 20, 2017, letter to Comey from two Democrat senators on the Judiciary Committee, Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Al Franken (D-MN). The senators alleged Sessions made false statements about contacts with Russian officials.
Sessions had already supplemented his disputed testimony on March 6, confirming he met the Russian ambassador twice during the campaign. Agents did not add that supplement to the file until May 23. The same day, they attached articles from the Huffington Post and the National Interest as evidence of an alleged third meeting at Washington’s Mayflower Hotel.
Sessions recused himself from the Russia investigation in March 2017. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appointed Robert Mueller as special counsel weeks later.
The FBI classified the Sessions case as a “sensitive investigative matter” under Assistant Director Bill Priestap. Priestap had signed off on the opening of Crossfire Hurricane. Franken resigned from the Senate before the bureau closed the probe.
Other declassified records have exposed the bureau’s reliance on unverified material. Separate memos named McCabe among officials who stalled a Clinton Foundation probe into the Uranium One deal.
Mueller’s office declined to charge Sessions. The FBI formally closed MARCH TOLL on May 8, 2018, nearly one year to the day after it opened.
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